#FamilyFriday | When You Fail the Test

About 6 weeks ago, we wrote about being busy. I mentioned how God was sending us small, subtle reminders that we needed to slow down. Don't be so busy - I knew it. I thought I had taken it to heart. No, I had taken it to heart, but I just didn't apply it to my life. We got more organized, but not less busy. And then two weeks ago, God pulled out the microphone. He used a horrible, almost crippling pain in my diaphragm to tell me that enough is enough. There was literally nothing I could do. Even if I wanted to be busy, my body would not allow it.

Praise the Lord for the medical degrees in my family, AKA my sister-in-law. It isn't serious, but I do have to take Pepcid and watch how much acid I'm eating. Yes, I'm weening myself off of coffee. [gasps of shock and horror, screams of panic] And if I want to recover from this, I have to eliminate as much stress from my life as possible.

I was given the practice quizzes. I failed.

Then came time for the test. I failed again. 

This last week, my mom and I went to Convocation at LIberty University. Clayton King spoke on how our scars tell our story, and that we are to use that story to strengthen and encourage one another. From the pain that we go through, God can redeem it and make it beautiful. But we have to share our story. Here I am, telling you my story, so that you don't have to go through the same pain. Slow. Down. Before your body forces you to. And what better time to do that than on a long weekend, especially one that is "celebrating the economical and social achievements of American workers" - in other words, being busy.

Final thought: I just finished watching a movie in which the preacher used the metaphor of an almond tree. If left uncultivated, it will go crazy producing. But it's in that overproduction that it will eventually crack apart and won't be able to produce anymore. What we're filling our schedules with (and I mean, filling. stuffing. cramming and packing tighter than dirty clothes on laundry day) may all be truly good things, and we may be producing a lot from it; but at the end of the day, we will eventually crack under the weight of it all, and we aren't going to produce a crop that will be good or sustainable.